Oct. 4, 2017—Recent analysis by just-auto.com illustrates how heated the competition has become in the worldwide electric vehicle battery market. The report notes that a competition is emerging in the global automotive lithium-ion battery sector, with China and Europe becoming top battlegrounds.
Most efforts are centered on the development of high-capacity lithium-ion technology, which is expected to dominate EV battery production for the next decade or two. South Korea’s three leading EV battery manufacturers—LG Chem, Samsung SDI, and SK Innovation—have expanded rapidly in the EV battery sector, and those three companies have promised to invest the equivalent of $1.77 billion combined to expand hybrid battery production by 2020. LG Chem was scheduled to start production at a newly built EV battery factory in Poland in the second half of 2017.
US-based A123 Systems, owned by China's Wanxiang group, is positioning itself to become a leading global supplier of lithium-ion electric and plug-in hybrid batteries, with manufacturing facilities on three continents. A number of global vehicle manufacturers are developing their own EV battery capabilities, such as Daimler with its Li-Tec Battery subsidiary.
For the foreseeable future, of course, EVs are seen as a main solution for limiting pollution. China has been at the forefront of policy changes, the just-auto.com report notes, with an EV market that included 409,000 in sales last year. The Chinese government has instructed its auto industry to sell at least 2 million EVs per year by 2020.
